Progression

Progression I, 7 x 10, collage by juana almaguer

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful.
Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path.
You know you will never get to the end of the journey.
But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.
Winston Churchill

I started this collage several months ago. It's an odd shape for me to work on (7 x 10 inches) and I got stumped at one point and set it aside. For a few weeks I deliberated what to add next and nothing came to heart. It eventually went in the drawer where I put my works in progress and completed works that need varnishing.

I came across it again this past week while collecting the pieces I was going to varnish. I kept it on my art table for a few days and even played with the idea of cutting it down to 7 x 7. Then one night at midnight, as usual, while I was trying to fall asleep, I got an image of what to do next with this collage.

This week I learned about diffuse vs. focused thinking. My midnight thoughts are the diffuse thinking. That is when I am not pushing my thoughts in any particular direction, and so my ideas have the freedom to take their own route.

I got up the next morning and completed the Progression I collage over the next two days by adding more washes of acrylics, enso stamping at the top and the circles at the bottom.

I wonder where you got that idea from? 
I mean, the idea that it's feeble to change your mind once it's made up. 
That's a wrong idea, you know. Make up your mind about things, by all means
 - but if something happens to show that you are wrong, then it is feeble not to change your mind, Elizabeth. Only the strongest people have the pluck to change their minds, and say so, if they see they have been wrong in their ideas.
Enid Blyton, The Naughtiest Girl in the School

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